Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The city's first and only public hospital, [this place] closed in May 2001 after serving the residents for nearly two hundred years. Consisting of a number of clinics such as Women's Services, Detoxification Center, and Southeast Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic.

The [hospital], the first public hospital established in 1806, was moved to this site in 1846. By then it was called the [city] Asylum and housed the city's indigent patients. It also served as a work house for people convicted of minor crimes. Later, a smallpox hospital, quarantine station, disinfection plant, and crematory were also located in this area. With the construction of a new building, the health-care facility became the [this place] Hospital in 1922, and was renamed [this place] in 1953. The controversial closing of the public hospital in 2001 ended the inpatient services and the city's indigent health care system was transferred mostly to the Greater [this place] Hospital. The [city] Jail is located to the south of this historic health-care complex.

Present Day

This is one of the sexiest morgues (probably poor choice of words) I've ever been in. It is located at my (hands down) favorite place to explore in my immediate area. They have started demolition on portions of this complex, so I wanted to ensure I finished photographing it, before it was too late. The pediatric center is already gone, which I'm definitely not a fan of. At this point the hospital is sealed up tight, but they do have the underground tunnels that are readily available.

Sections of this hospital closed in 1985 (admin), 1997 (psychiatric), 2000 (pediatrics) and 2001 for the autopsy/morgue. This is still a very active facility (STD Clinic and Drug Treatment Clinic) that is populated with some interesting characters, and also has an active medium security jail on the grounds. #Good times.